A glimpse into the future

This past week, we finally received the formal information packet about our future sites. In addition, we met with our individual counterparts. Each volunteer has a counterpart, who is one English teacher at their school who will function as their main liaison. I know that seems unclear and doesn't really make sense. Welcome to my world. After a day and a half of meetings and lectures that weren't really necessary, each of us went with our counterparts to our respective future sites. Since I am going to be staying in Barranquilla, I didn't need to go very far.

When we arrived in the neighborhood, it more or less matched my expectations. It was a very poor area with a couple paved roads. Most of the side roads were dirt and filled with holes, trash, and debris. Simply gorgeous. That day, my school was actually closed because the teachers were having training at another nearby school. Also, kind of important, school around town were not in session because the school year ended, so this was a horrible time to visit our schools. So I went with my teacher to the other school to meet the staff. The teachers are about 90% female, which apparently is normal. One thing they kept noting was how young I was. Yeah, I know I'm young enough to be one you your kids, get over it. Also, the school is run by a nun. So, um, that will be interesting.

Olga had wanted me to sit through their training session, but after twenty minutes of listening to a woman ramble on about something, I had to get out of there. I asked if my counterpart, Zaira, could show me around my actual school. She didn't want to be there either, so she was more than eager. The school was actually nicer than I had imagined. It surprisingly has wi-fi. There are actual windows and not just holes in the walls. And, to boot, there were four, count 'em four fans in each classroom. Pretty swanky, eh?

After a brief tour, Zaira took me to meet my future family. I was going to be living with the same family that the previous volunteer at that site had lived with. The mother and her 18 year old son were home. They both seemed pretty nice. They gave me a choice of which room I would want to stay in. Either one that had corrugated metal ceiling that didn't fit correctly with the wall and no window, or the larger room with a normal ceiling and a window. You can guess which one I chose. I also found out that they run a preschool out of their back patio. That can be good and bad. I love kids, and preschoolers are adorable, but it's going to get pretty loud. It'll probably be fine. Something that won't be fine is the store across the street that has speakers blaring a five second loop of an advertisement, repeating "Dos Mil! Dos Mil!" and a couple other incomprehensible words over and over again. I'll be lucky if it only drives me to drink.